WWP signees
Val Ayala, Bella Baia, Katrina Drake, Ava Johnson, Georgia Phillips and Isabella Wentzel will join the Bruins in fall 2018.

Bruins Secure Six Top California Talents

November 16, 2017 | Women's Water Polo

LOS ANGELES โ€“ UCLA women's water polo loaded up for the future Thursday, as head coach Adam Wright announced the signings of six top young California talents. Val Ayala (Santa Ana, Calif./Foothill HS), Bella Baia (Orange, Calif./Mater Dei HS), Katrina Drake (Orinda, Calif./Miramonte HS), Ava Johnson (Walnut Creek, Calif./Las Lomas HS), Georgia Phillips (Fresno, Calif./Clovis North HS) and Isabella Wentzel (Lafayette, Calif./Acalanes HS) make up the class, scheduled to join the Bruins in fall 2018.

Three months after Wright completed his staff, the Bruins' class includes experience on four USA Water Polo National Team levels, as well as Junior Olympics gold medalists and California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) champions.

"Starting late in the process of recruiting, we had already had a good base of players that the program had been looking at," Wright said. "The reality is we had a lot of work to do quickly to establish relationships with these top players and I think the staff and I were able to do that and I really believe we secured the top class in the country."

"As far as a staff standpoint, I personally had a lot of help from (assistant coaches) Dusty (Litvak) and Kodi (Hill), who obviously had a broader knowledge of each recruit," Wright continued. "I was able to see them play in the summer with their club teams.

"For me, the most important thing was to establish and get to know them as people because we're looking to bring in recruits that are going to enhance thatโ€”not only our program, but our cultureโ€”and we think we've absolutely done that with each one of these players."

Val Ayala
Attacker
Santa Ana, Calif. (Foothill HS)

Selected to USA Water Polo Youth and Junior National Teams โ€ฆ competed at 2017 FINA Junior World Championships in Volos, Greece; scored three goals in opener against Croatia โ€ฆ 2017 US Club Championships 18 & Under division silver medalist with SOCAL Water Polo โ€ฆ while with Youth National Team, competed at 2016 FINA World Youth Water Polo Championships in Auckland, New Zealand โ€ฆ earned gold medal and Second-Team All-American selection as member of SOCAL at 2016 Junior Olympics in 18 & Under division; also earned silver medal and First-Team All-American acknowledgement at 2017 Junior Olympics (18 & Under) โ€ฆ 2016, 2017 Olympic Development National Team selection โ€ฆ 2016-17 National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association (NISCA)/Speedo All America Second-Team selection โ€ฆ while at Foothill HS (Tustin, Calif.), Knights were two-time CIF Division 1 runners-up (2015, 2016) โ€ฆ named All-CIF-Southern Section (SS) Division 1 First-Team member in 2016-17 โ€ฆ 2015-16 NISCA Speedo All America Sixth-Team selection.

WRIGHT ON AYALA: "Val, no doubt, another top player in the country. Playing for the National Junior Team. She was just at the Junior Worlds this past summer. I had a chance to watch Val play club this summer. I immediately recognized her fundamental abilities in the water. For me, those are critical aspects of how far somebody can go in the game, is having solid fundamentals. Her ability to play the game in the vertical and horizontal immediately caught my eye and I knew she was already on our radar, but I knew how important she could be for our program. And then furthermore, getting to know her in the process, and know who she is as a person, I really believed bringing her into our program was going to help our culture, as well."

Bella Baia
Attacker
Orange, Calif. (Mater Dei HS)

Earned gold medal and Second-Team All-American selection as member of SOCAL Water Polo at 2016 Junior Olympics in 18 & Under division; also earned silver medal and First-Team All-American acknowledgement at 2017 Junior Olympics (18 & Under) โ€ฆ 2017 US Club Championships 18 & Under division silver medalist with SOCAL โ€ฆ named All-CIF-SS Division 1 First-Team member in 2016-17 โ€ฆ as junior at Mater Dei HS (Santa Ana, Calif.), Monarchs won Trinity League title and advanced to first CIF-SS Division 1 semifinal round; Baia totaled 40 goals and 37 assists.

WRIGHT ON BAIA: "I actually had a chance to see her [as she] and Val (Ayala) played on the same club team. You need players that are willing to do anything for the team and the amount of energy Bella brings to the game was really incredible. She's a driver, she has great work ethic. She comes from a great program in Mater Dei with a really great coaching staff, so I know her work ethic is first class. But the amount of energy and attention she draws in a game by how hard she's working definitely will be a critical role for her in our program. She may not always get the goals or the accolades, but I can tell you thisโ€”her hard work within the game is absolutely critical in the success that her club team had this summer and I really believe it'll be critical for us as a program moving forward."

Katrina Drake
Attacker
Orinda, Calif. (Miramonte HS)

Gold medalist at 2017 Junior Olympics as member of 680 Water Polo โ€ฆ as junior at Miramonte HS (2017), Matadors won first CIF-North Coast Section (NCS) Division 1 team championship since 1998 โ€ฆ 2016-17 National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association(NISCA)/Speedo All America Fifth-Team selection โ€ฆ 2016-17 USA Water Polo Academic All-American โ€ฆ as sophomore at Miramonte HS, named to Division 2 All-NCS First Team in 2016 โ€ฆ 2015-16 NISCA/Speedo All America Honorable Mention selection โ€ฆ Matadors also won NCS Division 2 title in 2015; scored goals in 9-4 championship-game win over Campolindo HS โ€ฆ also competed at 2015, 2016 and 2017 NCS Swimming Championships.

WRIGHT ON DRAKE: "Katrina remained committed through the whole process, which for me is important because I want a student-athlete to choose a university, not just fully based on athletics, but also the university as a whole. And she was drawn to UCLA, she remained committed to UCLA and we know if we have an athlete that really is in the right place then we can help them reach their goals. Katrina is a player, again, that can play many different positions. She's super tall and long, where she can help us on the defensive end and really fast in the counterattack, and her ability to go in the transition is going to help our game offensively, for sure."

Ava Johnson
Utility
Walnut Creek, Calif. (Las Lomas HS)

Selected to USA Water Polo Cadet, Youth and Junior National Teams โ€ฆ competed at 2017 FINA Junior World Championships in Volos, Greece; scored three goals in opener against Croatia โ€ฆ also suited up for Senior National Team at 2017 FINA Intercontinental Tournament in Davis, Calif. during NCAA season; scored two goals in win over Japan โ€ฆ played for 680 Water Polo club, which took gold at 2017 Junior Olympics in 18 & Under division; Second-Team All-American selection โ€ฆ 2016, 2017 Olympic Development National Team selection โ€ฆ named USA Water Polo Academic All-American for 2015-16 and 2016-17 โ€ฆ as sophomore at La Lomas HS (Walnut Creek, Calif.), named to Division 1 All-NCS First Team in 2016 โ€ฆ 2015-16 National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association/Speedo All America Fifth-Team selection.

WRIGHT ON JOHNSON: "[Ava] gives us the opportunity to play her in many different positions, but her main position is the center positionโ€”which we're going to need because we're going to have a large departure of seniors leaving this year that play that position. With all of these players, including Ava, they're all going to have a chance to make an immediate impact on the program. I think her athletic ability and her ability not only to play at the center, but play on the outside, is going to give us a lot of options for her to be in the pool a lot."

Georgia Phillips
Goalkeeper
Fresno, Calif. (Clovis North HS)

Selected to USA Water Polo Cadet, Youth and Junior National Teams โ€ฆ participated in 2017 FINA Intercontinental Tournament in Davis, Calif. as member of Senior National Team during NCAA season; tallied 12 saves in 6-5 win over Canada โ€ฆ competed in 2016 Union Americana de Natacion (UANA) Junior Pan American Championships in Edmonton, AB, Canada, where Team USA claimed silver medal โ€ฆ as member of Rose Bowl Water Polo Club (Pasadena, Calif.), earned Honorable Mention All-American selection at 2017 Junior Olympics in 18 & Under division โ€ฆ named USA Water Polo Academic All-American for 2015-16 and 2016-17 โ€ฆ 2016, 2017 Olympic Development National Team selection โ€ฆ holds Clovis North HS (Fresno, Calif.) all-time blocks record โ€ฆ 2015-16 National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association/Speedo All America Fifth-Team selection.

WRIGHT ON PHILLIPS: "Georgia kept her commitment to UCLA and that's a tribute to the program and the school, but what we're getting in Georgia is the absolute top goalie prospect in the country. We're excitedโ€”I'm excitedโ€”I had the chance to see her over the summer. But I'm also excited to see where she goes here over the next seven months. She's also involved with the National Team Program and I really believe that she's just kind of scraping the surface of where she can go. And obviously the goalkeeper position in water polo is really your last line of defense and for us to have the ability to bring her in is really going to put us in a good spot for a long time down the road."

Isabella Wentzel
Defender
Lafayette, Calif. (Acalanes HS)

Named USA Water Polo Academic All-American for 2015-16 and 2016-17 โ€ฆ selected to USA Water Polo Youth National Team โ€ฆ was named Second-Team All-American and earned silver medal with Diablo Alliance Water Polo in 16 & Under division at 2017 Junior Olympics โ€ฆ 2017 Olympic Development National Team selection โ€ฆ while at Acalanes HS (Lafayette, Calif.), Dons won CIF-NCS Division 2 title in 2016 โ€ฆ named All-Diablo Athletic League Second-Team member in 2016 โ€ฆ also competed at 2017 NCS Swimming Championships.

WRIGHT ON WENTZEL: "I was at JOs (Junior Olympics) and I had the opportunityโ€”actually, her coach was my first water polo coach growing upโ€”and I had the chance to watch her at Junior Olympics and I immediately noticedโ€”we're in need of center defenders and she's really, really long and she had done a really nice job with her team, defensively at Junior Olympics. And then I did a little bit more research and I really believed she was really somebody who could growโ€”and I think grow a lot further than maybe some of the other names ahead of her. I immediately began to recruit her and I thought if she could fundamentally continue to grow, she can absolutely become a top defensive player in the game of college water polo."

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